Using Cider to run Windows games on OS X?

Hi, I'm new to the Mac community. A friend recently gave me her old G3 500MHz iMac (upgraded to 512mb & 10.3) & I've been converted!

One of the reasons I've been a PC/Windows owner for the past 10 years was the apparent lack of games available for Mac's. But since getting this old iMac I'm now desperate to escape the clutches of Windows (especially Vista) & buy a new iMac once Leopard comes out.

Getting back to the subject of gaming, I've just come across Cider (by TransGaming). I understand that if you download the demo of Myst Online you can extract the Cider program from the installer and apply it to any DirectX based Windows game. These games will then run from OS X instead of having to use Windows via Boot Camp.

As I'm a newbie to the Mac community, can anyone out there verify how well this product works at running Windows games (such as Far Cry, Half Life 2) from OS X?

LOL, oh I realise you'd need a high-end Intel based Mac with a powerful GPU but what I was really interested in was if anyone uses Cider to run the latest Windows games on their iMac's without using Bootcamp?

LOL, oh I realise you'd need a high-end Intel based Mac with a powerful GPU but what I was really interested in was if anyone uses Cider to run the latest Windows games on their iMac's without using Bootcamp?

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Phew!! I just had visions of someone in an anorak and a linux t-shirt hunched over a G3 imac trying to port Crysis over to osX and getting a little fustrated by the challenge

From the things i've read there is a mixed bag of results with Cider. Some games work ok, but still it will never be as good as running in its native environment, and considering it takes all of 30 minutes to install a copy of xp in bootcamp, is it really worth all the effort just to avoid booting into windows just for a game ?

LOL, oh I realise you'd need a high-end Intel based Mac with a powerful GPU but what I was really interested in was if anyone uses Cider to run the latest Windows games on their iMac's without using Bootcamp?

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Cider is the wrapper Transgaming developed to incorporate into games. It's not really an end-user product. Visiting the Transgaming website will explain this. It's sold to game companies who want their game on the market for mac users.

Not for mac users to run windows games. It's not like CrossOver where you can buy it in a store and install any game.

1) Download a game demo that uses Cider (like Myst),
2) Do show package contents and go to "Contents/Resources/trnasgamming/c_drive/Program Files/" and put there your Need For Speed installed game,
3) Copy this dlls from windows into c_drive/windows/system32/: d3d9_24.dll to d3d9_32.dll,
3) Open Info.plist from Contents folder and change Cedega Game dir and Name to:
<key>CedegaGameDir</key>
<string>c:\Program Files\Electronic Arts\Need for Speed Most Wanted</string>
<key>CedegaGameName</key>
<string>c:\Program Files\Electronic Arts\Need for Speed Most Wanted\speed.exe</string>

There are some videos on YouTube of Far Cry & NFS running from the OS X desktop (but I guess they could be fakes).

1) Download a game demo that uses Cider (like Myst),
2) Do show package contents and go to "Contents/Resources/trnasgamming/c_drive/Program Files/" and put there your Need For Speed installed game,
3) Copy this dlls from windows into c_drive/windows/system32/: d3d9_24.dll to d3d9_32.dll,
3) Open Info.plist from Contents folder and change Cedega Game dir and Name to:
<key>CedegaGameDir</key>
<string>c:\Program Files\Electronic Arts\Need for Speed Most Wanted</string>
<key>CedegaGameName</key>
<string>c:\Program Files\Electronic Arts\Need for Speed Most Wanted\speed.exe</string>

There are some videos on YouTube of Far Cry & NFS running from the OS X desktop (but I guess they could be fakes).

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Unless this is quoted by Transgaming as a "how to get current games to work in OSX by hacking an existing game" I would think that any issues arrising from it are "use at your own risk" and if they don't work then people have no room to complain.

However, that being said, I find it very interesting and will have to try it myself since heck, WHY NOT!

But bottom line, I don't believe this is supported so you kinda have to go with the mentality "if you break it, you buy it" know what I mean?

Any posting like "Games you can try with CIDER using the XXXXX method" probably would get deleted and qualified as "hacks" but it would be neat/kewl to have a list of games that we can try to get working.

I have a couple of games I'd like to try out. Let me know how this methods goes.

I've got a Cider port of Need For Speed: Most Wanted working on my Macbook Pro 2 GHZ Core Duo. Runs well, but I get slight juttering every once in a while. Note that this is on high quality graphics and 1024x768 resolution The game also likes to crash quite frequently just after autosaves after completing challenges. Otherwise it works just fine. I'm sure I'd get better framerates by using Bootcamp tho and less crashes too

Yeah, I used it alreay several times. Playing Mafia right now on MacBook, works perfeckly.

But not only files must be added to the Cinder package, you must inlucde and games information from register if it uses it. And CPU must be INTEL's. Amm... And game must run full screen from the start, if there are any other window before game starts you won't be able to port it to Cinder.

It'll be interesting to see how Cider develops. If you own a copy of Myst Online & own the Windows game you wonna try to get working via Cider - would it be really so bad to post your results in a dedicated "Works with Cider" thread?

I'm not huge on the Cider idea since it takes away from the OS X experience. With the recent releases of EA titles, maybe more companies will help TransGaming nail the technology down to converting games to the OS X native environment without emulation. Eventually a bunch of tools that make converting it to OS X natively a snap, then commit to some tweaking.

As for now, Windows PC for games, Powerbook for important, and realistic, items.

With gaming consoles today though, I'm surprised PC gaming is holding up as well as it has been lately.

It'll be interesting to see how Cider develops. If you own a copy of Myst Online & own the Windows game you wonna try to get working via Cider - would it be really so bad to post your results in a dedicated "Works with Cider" thread?

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Technically no and more so Technically YES.

I mean if you wanted to get technical.

For starters just owning the actual games means nothing. Let's say someone owns a copy of Lord of the Rings (which won't work due to the initial window prior to starting the game but let's use it for an example) the game is not licensed to run in OSX and neither is it licensed to run inside CIDER. Even if you own say MYST for OSX that doesn't mean you own a "do as you wish" copy of CIDER.

CIDER is licensed by the video game producer/developer from transgaming. Transgaming and said company agree to wrap the game (which Transgaming does) then the game is published as such.

So in essence your "hacking" an existing OSX game and replacing it with a licensed WINDOWS game which (obviously) is not a licensed OSX/CIder game, to run in an unlicensed copy of CIDER which was licensed for a different game.

So since the Transgaming guys DO in fact visit this forum (I have been contacted by them for another issue I had with their ports) I don't think it would be a good idea.

That's not to say I wouldn't try it out ;P but if I did, I think that would legally be wrong

I'm not huge on the Cider idea since it takes away from the OS X experience.

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Something tells me if I could get Half Life 2 up and running with just a double click (without Crossover mind you), I wouldn't be worried about "the OS X experience." Would be nice if I didn't have to reboot into Windows everytime to play one game.

i instaled, put all the thing to play it but i just bounce twice, nothing more. im wasting 15GB of HD to boot windows only to play battlefied 2142

i asked in EA support and they didnt tell me a good answer so i dont have nothing :S

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Depending on your flavour Mac you have it could be driver related. There's a lot of posts about BF2142 and Macs especially the new iMac. But if you downloaded a torrent claiming to be an official game then who knows what you have.

Something tells me if I could get Half Life 2 up and running with just a double click (without Crossover mind you), I wouldn't be worried about "the OS X experience." Would be nice if I didn't have to reboot into Windows everytime to play one game.

Still an interesting concept.

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Half-Life 2 requires Steam, Steam is not going to work through Cider so HL2 will not run. Also not every game will run, some will and some will with major bugs and glitches. But the ones that do work, work well for the most part.

On the website they have the peoples playing team fortress ( and they seem like the ultimate mac fan boys ~ not cool -_- )

I think its the best way to use windows stuff on mac without bootcamp

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I just installed Star Trek Armada 2 with Cross-over (Bronze rated game) before investing in Cross over double check the compatibility list and view by name and you can see what kinda works and what works well to what doesn't work at all.

It's a good tool and I quick tested STA2 this morning before work and it went full screen, now I just need to figure out how to run the game updates.

has anyone been able to run cider on leopard? I am trying to make my first cider port myself with SimCity Societies and am not having any luck with any instructions including the ones above from mateus. I am not sure if I'm messing something up or if it is simply not yet leopard compatible...

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